Kari Lake demands resignation of Arizona Republican Party chair who offered her a bribe not to run

Kari Lake on Tuesday demanded the resignation of Arizona Republican Party Chairman Jeff DeWit after DailyMail.com published audio last year of the moment he appeared to try to bribe her not to run for U.S. Senate.

In it you can hear him explain that powerful people would offer her a job or money if she would stay out of politics for two years.

As she arrived at Donald Trump’s campaign party in Nashua, New Hampshire, on Tuesday evening, she told DailyMail.com that the American people had had enough.

“People are rising up and saying, no, we want our country back,” she said.

‘We want our government back and we will not tolerate an ounce of corruption anymore. And the truth is all coming out now.”

Asked whether he should resign now, she said: “I believe he should.”

DeWit and his office did not respond to multiple requests for comment, but local party officials have demanded he leave his post.

Lake had previously spoken about the extraordinary attempt to keep her out of the race, but never revealed who was behind it.

On Monday, Arizona talk show host Garret Lewis appointed DeWit, who was elected chairman of the party last January.

Audio obtained by DailyMail.com revealed how he made his offer at her home in early March last year.

“There are very powerful people who want to keep you out,” you hear him say.

DeWit tells Lake, 54, one of the most public faces of the former president’s MAGA movement and a woman often mentioned as a 2024 vice presidential pick, that he thinks Trump will lose and that it is time to to make for someone else.

After asking her not to discuss the conversation with anyone, he makes his first offer.

“So the question I got from back east today was, ‘Are there any companies or something that can put her on the payroll to keep her out?’

Jeff DeWit and his wife Marina with President Donald Trump. DeWit was elected chairman of the Republican Party of Arizona last year. Shortly afterwards, he urged Kari Lake to step back from politics for two years. “There are very powerful people who want to keep you out,” he told you

Lake reacts indignantly.

“This is about beating Trump and I think that’s a bad thing for our country,” she said.

At the time of their conversation, Lake was publicly considering a run for the U.S. Senate.

And the episode reveals the tensions that arose after she refused to accept defeat in Arizona’s 2022 gubernatorial race.

She emerged as a national figure and became a regular on Fox News, repeating Trump’s election denial. That put her at odds with the more traditional wing of the Republican Party, which feared that a new breed of Trump loyalists could alienate major donors.

She announced her run in October.

In the new 10-minute audio clip, DeWit is asked for confidentiality.

Lake spoke to the Daily Mail at the Sheraton Hotel in Nashua, New Hampshire, where journalists, campaign staff and supporters gathered to watch the primary results

The pressure on DeWit to resign as chairman of the state party is already increasing

“If you say no, that’s fine, it’s your choice, don’t tell people,” he tells Lake.

He later explains the rationale behind the offer.

“I think what it really comes down to for a lot of people is it’s not about control or agenda,” he says. “It’s about the ability to raise money to win.”

Lake sticks to her guns.

‘I don’t want to make a deal with these kinds of people. This is a hill worth dying on,” she said.

“I’m not… if they’re going to steal the elections to make me and our movement disappear. I won’t let them do that.

“I owe it to the people of Arizona to carry their torch and their voices.”